The Denfeld Hunters last trip to the state boy’s high school hockey tournament was awhile ago.1989 to be exact.

The Hunters are the #1 seed in 7A and Levi Talarico scored the first goal and it turned out to be the game winning goal in a 11-0 victory over Greenway/N.K.  The Hunters advance to the semifinals.

In other games on Thursday, Hermantown topped Proctor 10-0 with 60 shots on net. That means 50 saves made by Isaac Scherber a junior goaltender for the Rails.

Hibbing-Chisholm with a 6-1 win over North Shore.  International Falls beat Virginia-MIB 5-3. At Mars Lakeview Arena on Thurday night Duluth Marshall Hilltoppers topped Eveleth-Gilbert 6-1 to also advance to the semifinals.

Friday night Superior High School plays in the section finals vs. Hudson in Menomonie and the Section 7AA semifinals will be Saturday at Amsoil Arena with C-E-C vs. Duluth East and Grand Rapids vs. Elk River.  Noon and 2pm starts on Saturday.

 

Girls State Hockey:

The state girl’s high school hockey tournament continued Thursday for the Hibbing–Chisholm Bluejackets. They topped New Ulm  2–1 and will play

for the consolation title.  They are now 19–9 on the year. Head Coach Pete Hyduke said going into the tournament that he was proud of this year’s team, he said, “We try and play a very aggressive style of play, we try and take away time and space in all zones of the ice and are backboned by very solid goaltending.”

They will play at Ridder Arena at 10am Saturday vs. Mound West Tonka in the consolation game.

 

NCHA Honors

And the postseason honors were announced Thursday in the women’s NCHA.  St. Scholastica had two players named to the all–league team.

Nina Waidacher and Alex Blair.   UWS also had two players honored as well, Bailey Lane and Dani Schultz..  Both UWS and CSS will be in the women’s

NCHA playoffs this weekend.  The Saints at Lake Forest and Yellowjackets will be at home to face St. Norbert.  Waidacher led the league in scoring and also leads D3 in scoring as well.

 

Bulldogs home and away

The UMD women’s hockey team at home this week, trying to secure home ice for the upcoming playoffs.  The Bulldogs will host North Dakota on Friday and Saturday and both games will be on the My9 Sports Network. UMD has more injuries and their goaltender didn’t practice this week either due to an injury.

The UMD men’s hockey team goes on the road for the final time in the WCHA regular season this weekend when they take on the Gophers at Mariucci Arena.  Tonight’s meeting will be the 219th between the schools and the first time they have played in over 15 months.  UMD has played the last three games without Caleb Herbert due to injury but he is expected to be back in the lineup this weekend.

Head Coach Scott Sandelin looks for more improvement this weekend, he said, “I want to build off what we did last weekend we worked on a lot of things last week and I think our guys did that well.  It’s a little more of a challenge playing on a bigger rink this weekend with the team that they have, that moves the puck around a lot.”

UMD gave up four power-play goals last Friday but Sandelin liked how they played at full-strength.  He said, “I was pleased we didn’t give up any five on five goals this weekend that was hurting us the past two weekends so we need to continue that and score some goals.”

The Bulldogs will be back at home for the final two weekends of play in the regular season against Alabama-Huntsville and Nebraska-Omaha.

Keep Smile’n Northland! I will.

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